UC Merced's plan for a new agricultural research park.

Recently I visited with our colleagues at UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz – UC's newest Agricultural Experiment Station campuses.

UC Merced natural reserve.

At UC Merced, we met with administrators, faculty and staff for a tour of campus. There, we were shown some of the vast rangelands that encompass the UC Natural Reserve System sites managed by UC Merced and the site for the new agricultural research park. The plans feature teaching spaces, research plots, public engagement opportunities, and sites for collaboration with industry leaders. 

UCSC community garden.

The visit to the UC Santa Cruz campus and community gardens were very different from our visit to Merced. UC Santa Cruz features a fully functional farm that provides high-quality produce to students and community members at little or no cost. We also toured their aquaculture facility wherein rainbow trout are grown for both research and consumption. 

UCSC aquaculture facility

An an autonomous tractor at the UCSC Farm & Garden.

The UCSC Farm

You can read more about our visit to UCSC at https://news.ucsc.edu/2023/10/aes-designation-planning-campus-visit.html.

We are excited to engage with both campuses as they become fully integrated into our Agricultural Experiment Station network.

These Orange County 4H'ers are amazing.

Saturday was truly a great night at the Orange County Farm Bureau Steak Fry. The Steak Fry was held on Nov. 4 at Tanaka Farms in Irvine to raise funds for 4-H, FFA and various local colleges' ag education programs. That includes South Coast REC's GROW program, which is designed to make agricultural experiences accessible to more young people across the region and introduce them to careers opportunities in agriculture. Orange County Farm Bureau also provided a small donation to the UCCE Master Food Preserver program in Orange County. 

At the Orange County Farm Bureau Steak Fry, from left, Rita Jakel, Colleen Clemens, Darren Haver, Brent Hales and Araceli Hernandez.

It was great to spend an evening with my UC ANR colleagues. I saw Research & Extension Center director Darren Haver, Rita Jakel, 4-H community education specialist; Colleen Clemens, UC Master Food Preserver Program coordinator; and Araceli Hernandez, 4-H region 11 program supervisor.

The four 4-H members tell the audience tell the audience how participating in 4-H has improved their lives.

I felt so proud sitting with the other people attending the Orange County Farm Bureau Steak Fry listening to the four young women from Orange County share examples of how they improved their lives by participating in 4-H club activities, public speaking, leadership events, etc. They were amazing.

From left, clockwise, Sam Farr, Chavonda Jacobs-Young and Leon Panetta.

The following day, I had the pleasure of attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new USDA Research Center in Salinas.

It was an honor to participate in the ribbon cutting for the Sam Farr United States Crop Improvement and Protection Research Center. The research center is dedicated to retired Congressman Sam Farr, who represented California's Central Coast in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017.

USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Chavonda Jacobs-Young, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as well as Farr spoke. 

"This new center is going to ensure that our farmers, our ag workers, our ag leaders, that they benefit from the latest knowledge in cutting edge technology in agriculture," said Robert Rivas, California Assembly speaker.

The newly constructed Sam Farr U.S. Crop Improvement and Protection Research Center is located in Salinas. Photo by Bill Wintermantel ARS

The new research center features state-of-the-art laboratories, greenhouses and the capacity to accommodate additional scientists. It expands on the current ARS Crop Improvement and Protection Research Laboratory, which houses many of our USDA-Agricultural Research Station partners such as Daniel Hasegawa, who has worked closely with Richard Smith, emeritus UCCE vegetable crops advisor, on impatiens necrotic spot virus, a disease that infects lettuce. Our own UC Cooperative Extension weed specialist Steve Fennimore, who is affiliated with UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, has an office in the ARS building.

As a congressman, Farr served on the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies and has been an advocate for agriculture. He is also a longtime supporter of UC Cooperative Extension.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting San Diego with Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty. While in town, I met with members of San Diego County Farm Bureau, San Diego County supervisors and county administrators to learn about their concerns and to find out how UC ANR can be a better partner. I had the pleasure of hanging out with our colleagues in the UC Cooperative Extension office in San Diego on Friday, Oct. 20. It's exciting and inspiring to hear what they are working on. 

My plan is to visit each of the 58 counties and meet with their county supervisors, county administrators and local Farm Bureau members to better understand their needs. I want to hear and learn from our local partners.